You are welcome.

This is just an image of another "Classic Orchid" that caught my attention at yesterday's Cleveland Show. This beautiful plant is Cattleya Prism Palette. It did not appear to have a clonal name and there have been a few awarded from this grex. It is a hybrid of C. Horace X C. Colorama.


It is one of the first tri-lipped Cattleyas that I can remember seeing way back when. They tend to reflex a bit especially after they open. But just look at how pretty that the flower on the left is. These were 3 large flowers. I did not measure them but I am thinking that they were easily 6 1/2" give or take. A few of the more modern tri-lips struggle to reach 5".
This plant was in a 6" pot and had about seven growths. Prism Palette has been sound for quite some time and just like Paphiopedilum Maudiae, it is always a thrill for me to still see a real classic show up at a show!
I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I do bringing it to you!!!

That is ridiculously floofy!!

I can't resist beautiful compact Cattleyas. I saw this yesterday without a name on the tag. I figured, wait a minute, this must have a name!


But if it has one, I can't find it. This is a hybrid of Cattleya loddigesii X Cattleya nobilior. For many years, nobilior was a variety of Cattleya walkeriana. This is nobilior


Several of the published images I
looked at all had this unusual pattern of veining in the lip. Most walkeriana lips, in particular the front lobe kind of rolls under along the outside edges. This apparently contrasts with nobilior where the front lobe remains almost open and flat. This image is of a nobilior that I purchased from Krull-Smith and gave to a friend in Florida. It is a sweet little thing.
Now to further confuse you, walkeriana x loddigesii is C. Heathii I think. But nobilior x walkeriana is not named. Ah, whatever we call it, it is a pretty bubble gum pink 3 1/2" flat flower with very faint darker speckles. And look at the front lobe of the lip, it is rolled under taking after walkeriana.
Look towards the column, high up in the lip. Those side lobes of the lip roll closed, concealing the column. That is a trait of C. loddigesii. In walkeriana those side lobes would roll back exposing the column.

A cute bloom! And yes, this particular name confusion did come up every so often here too.

Bill, I did manage to find both names for you.

The hybrid of Cattleya loddigesii X Cattleya nobilior was registered in late November last year as Orchid (Cattleya A Brazilian Dream).

I also found Orchid (Phalaenopsis Purple Zebra) in the RHS Orchid Register and based on one other commercial listing I can find online, I suspect that is it.

Thanks so much Joshua!

You're welcome, Bill! Thanks for sharing your photos and comments.

My pleasure.

Oops, I forgot one.
This last couple of images I have from the Cleveland Show are of C. Aloha Case. This is a hybrid of C. Mini Purple X Cattleya walkeriana.



I included both images because with the first one I got that disturbing bright white crack of light in the image due to an open seam in the black cloth backdrop. But it still helps me make a point for everyone that is trying to grow Cattleyas. So many of them do better mounted because they hate to be disturbed when they're repotted.
This plant with these incredibly colored lavender pink flowers were a full 4" wide!! The petals are gorgeous, both full and flat. Look at the three sepals, the dorsal and two laterals. They are wide and do not reflex back and away from the camera! And since this hybrid has a double dose of walkeriana, you see the typical walkeriana lip in these two flowers. The side lobes of the lip are open revealing the white column with its lavender blush. The apical lobe is darker then the rest of the flower.
But if your Cattleyas are struggling to grow well and flower, look closely at both images. This was a plant with over twenty pseudobulbs and a massive root system that hides the cork bark mount. Yes, it was big enough of a plant to maybe have more flowers but the 2 it had were very nice indeed!
This was just sitting so pretty within its exhibit and was worthy I thought of my nomination as the Best Cattleya in the Show. I don't know if it got the award but it got my vote.

Just as a note, this weekend I will be at the Greater Lansing Orchid Society Show. Let me see what I can find there? Check back please. I love to bring you these images.

This brought up a funny memory from a couple of years ago when I was really starting to run out of bench space and thought mounted plants was the magic solution to my 'problem'.
I returned from the annual Tamiami Orchid Show with all kinds of cool pieces of wood, cork and of course plants.
The next Thursday ( when our club tends to the Botanical Garden orchid collection) I brought my haul down to get opinions on matching plants with mounts. Bill Thoms walked by the potting bench and looked at what we were contemplating doing with a couple of really nice L. jongheana x sib. Plants.
The look he gave us reminded me of my idiotic adolescence years ( when I got the same same look from my Dad). We were crushed when he patiently explained that these were not the plants to experiment with. I am currently experimenting with several less special plants, and failing miserably! The 2 jongheana plants were potted up in clay pots and one has its first bud.
I now have an appreciation for a beautifully matched plant and mount that is grown to perfection...it's harder to do than it looks!
Thanks for sharing your Cleveland Show highlights with us , Bill!

Thanks Bill, and Lindsey!
Your posts could not have been more perfectly timed for me!
I have 3 Cattleyas that I have been seriously considering for either a re pot to wood slat baskets, or mounting to a piece of driftwood. They currently live in clay pots...
🤔 seems I should rethink this...

Whatever you go it is best when you see "new roots" just starting to grow from the base of the newest lead.
When you do it then, you are much less likely to injure them. They can grow down into the new media.
If those roots are damaged, it may set the plant back. It gets unhappy and may not bloom the following season!

Lindsey, Laelia jongheana has the reputation of being cranky. It is not easy to grow.

I have mounted perhaps 200 Cattleyas over the years and Florida required different methods. Not in the method or mount BUT in terms of how much sphagnum I used to hold water as the plant adjusts. Up North I used moss, plant, then more moss. I kind of made a sandwich of the roots. In Florida, I just used a single pad of moss between the mount and the plant. That and in Florida during the rainy season, they needed air movement.

Just something to think about I recently read in an orchid newsletter that the writer found that moss from New Zealand lasted 4 times longer than moss sourced from South America. He said his lasted up to 4 years without breaking down. This was in St. Augustine.

Thanks for the tips, Bill. So far what I'm discovering is that my 'Treat everyone the same' approach doesn't make any of the species Cattleya happy. I am treating them like Vanda in that they get watered every day. I have some compact hybrid Catts that would probably be more forgiving. Anything I grow in clay pots flourishes..species or not.
Tara, good luck with your 3!

What a great discussion!
It makes sense not to pot up a Schomburgkia which grows in nature over a boulder in bright sunshine, into a fine mix in a plastic pot.

One interesting point that I wanted to add was that the 2 Paphiopedilums I purchased, glaucophyllum and liemianum, really perked up when I put them underlights and watered them.
The inflorescences that kind of looked like a pigs tail, all curlyqued, the light and water added bulk to them. They stood up with a bit more heft to them. They had looked weakened before. Now, they look stronger and they are looking really good. I can't wait to see the flowers!
I could not remember this happening with any other orchid that I purchased. Anyone else ever had a similar experience???

Sounds like they were a bit stressed. And your particular grow lights are best suited for Paphs?